Test Setup

Test Setup

As usual, the following are the specs of our trusty graphics card test bed system:

Intel Core i7-975 (3.33GHz)

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard

3 x 1GB DDR3-1333 G.Skill memory in triple channel mode

Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Obviously, we’ll be pitting the GTX 690 against dual GTX 680s in 2-way SLI configuration to test NVIDIA’s claims of similar performance output. Take note that the slightly lower GPU base clock speed of the GTX 690 would mean that you're likely to see the GTX 690 tailing the GTX 680 SLI pair by a hair. We’ll also see how it compares to dual AMD Radeon HD 7970 cards in CrossFire configuration, a single GTX 680 and HD 7970 as well as previous generation dual-GPU cards.